Southern Hebron Hills – Weds, Aug. 22, 2007 Observers: Tzipi G, Bela S. (reporting) 6:50 Meitar Check postIt appears deserted on the Palestinian side, & we continue.6:55RamadinFrom the direction of the Ramadin Village a tractor is waiting, and isjoined by a Transit mini-bus, then more vehicles. They are checked ina timely manner. One of the mini-buses is detained and the papers ofthe passengers are taken for inspection, but they are released within5 minutes. There are no cars coming from the direction of Dahariya.7:15Meitar – still deserted.Dura al-Fuar, the Sheep Crossroads – blockades as usual, pedestrians, loading & unloading of vehicles “back-to-back”, the Pillbox is manned.8:00HebronThe Pharmacy crossing is deserted, as is Shuada St. At Tarpad crossingthere is almost no traffic. At the entrance to Tel Rumeida. Threepeace activists from abroad are sitting on the curb reading books. Wedecide to walk around and go down to the deserted shuk, and from thereto Beit Hadassah & Kikar Hashisha – (“The square of the Six”). Wehare the shouts of children coming from the houses and see facespeering at us through the bars on the porches. When we try to taketheir pictures they disappear quickly. The playground for the Jewishchildren on the bottom part of the House of the Six, stands out insharp contrast to the bars on the windows of the Palestinian homes.We return to the Tarpad Machsom, and try to imagine a differentreality here: the checkpoints dismantled, the shops re-opened,removing the bars on the windows, cafes opened, children playing inthe street, cleaning up the trash & garbage, life returning to thecity…and tourists from all over the world coming to visit this specialcity.8:30The Tomb of the PatriarchsIt is surround by checkpoints from all sides. A few Jewish worshippersarrive, an Egged bus pulls up.Shayuch”Open” as usual, traffic flows over the Halhul Bridge. The barrierthat was taken down last week to allow a water tanker to come into thecity has been erected again.